To mark its 125th anniversary, the Bai Ruttonbai Framji Dorabji Panday Girls’ High School organized "Showcase,” a two-day festival of interschool competitions on September 27-28, 2022. Seventeen Bombay schools sent over 700 students to the event.
"In all fairness, the host school did not participate in the event but helped organize it with much dedication and efficiency,” stated administrator Freny Mehta. "The senior students worked hard to organize and ensure the smooth running of all the events, as well as take care of the hospitality towards hundreds of parents and teachers accompanying the students,” she said.
Eighteen competitions were devised class wise. The pre-primary and primary children competed in coloring, paper sticking, recitation, origami, finger painting, collage art, puppetry and making wind chimes. Students in higher classes competed in group dancing, choir singing, poster making and sketching, badminton, rangoli and quizzing.
Based on the points garnered in each event, The Dadar Parsee Youths Assembly emerged the winners, followed by The Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Parsee Charitable Institution, Alexandra Girls’ English Institution and Sir Cowasjee Jehangir High School, noted Mehta.
Clockwise from top l: Bai Ruttonbai Framji Dorabji Panday Girls’ High School;
showcasing interschool talent in art and dance;
administrator Freny Mehta, headmistress Silloo Commissariat (l) with principal Hutoxi Mistry
The administrator pointed out that participation certificates were designed by a Panday School student, Labhdi Shah of class 10. Certificates of merit were designed by Prachi Mishra, also of class 10.
As believes the School principal Hutoxi Mistry, "Showcase” embodied her idea that "one needs three things to win: discipline, hard work and, before everything, commitment. No one will make it without those three.” The valedictory function held in the School Hall on September 28 was presided over by their headmistress Silloo Commissariat, who has "spent 65 years of her life in the service of the School,” starting as a young teacher in the late 1950s.
Further celebratory events include the annual jashan and gahanbar in November, and a fun fair and sports events in December. "In January we have our annual day,” Mehta noted.
The Panday School functions under the auspices of the Garib Zarthostiona Rehethan Fund (GZRF) from two buildings in Gilder Lane. There are about 350 students on their rolls, of whom 14 are Parsis. A note from the School states that Sir Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, First Baronet had the vision to establish this place of learning in memory of his daughter, Ruttonbai. She passed away at the age of 31, while giving birth to Meherbai (who married Jehangir Bhabha). They later became parents of scientist Dr Homi Bhabha and Jamshed who was the moving spirit behind the founding of the National Centre for the Performing Arts.
The GZRF also owns and manages 40 buildings around Bombay to house needy Parsi families.